Kakashi wandered through the trees, barely paying attention to where he was going.

As much as it was easier to be angry with Kukyo, there was something stopping him from being truly that way. In the same way when Daraku had revealed she had been the assassin all along and he had stood there thinking every little detail of the mission back then over and over to figure out if she really was who he said she was, Kakashi was doing the same now to figure out if she really had betrayed him. If everything she had told him during the mission had been a lie and he hadn't really known her at all.

Even with his aggression he didn't want it to be true—maybe it was even because of his wish for it to be a lie his that anger flared up. As such he was now wandering through the estate, having finally reached the inner buildings, ambling around them and searching at the same time he searched his thoughts for anything that could help him find an answer for what he was looking for. It just wasn't right after all. Sure, Kukyo hadn't defended herself when Daraku had said all that stuff, trying to convince him that things were different and there was a reason for it all, but the estate—Daraku himself—affected her. She hadn't been able to face him during the mission to begin with, and knowing he was in the estate…was it such a strange idea to think she'd run away, especially with everything that was going on?

And what about their first mission to begin with? True, Kukyo could have been using him to break free of Daraku and break out on her own; that the mission hadn't been her first priority and she'd never been planning on joining Konoha afterwards, but she went further than she needed to if that was the case. She protected Kakashi when she didn't have to, guiding him through the estate and showing him more than was needed, talked with him and befriended him—all things that weren't necessary in the situation for her goals. Why bother doing all that if she didn't have to? Overall it meant Kakashi couldn't help but think something about this whole thing wasn't right here.

Though he'd agreed with Tsunade's orders to go after Daraku and Kukyo, Kakashi was starting to doubt himself. Having started thinking things through, knowing there was something wrong, feeling it no matter how hard he tried to shake it off and knowing that he didn't know the full details, Kakashi had to find out the truth before he faced Kukyo or he knew he wouldn't be able to fight her. Even if he managed to force himself to or one of the others ended up doing it for him, he got the feeling the guilt would follow him for the rest of his life with the niggling suspicion in the back of his mind that there was more to it than what he'd originally thought.

How this was going to end, he didn't know. It's not like he had particularly long, after all. They were going to begin to start searching and properly tracking the two in the morning, and Kakashi couldn't say he'd stay behind to have a look around the estate when there was no reason for him to be doing so. Naruto and Sakura knew his connection with Kukyo anyway—they'd know he was hesitating. So if he hadn't found anything by then, he'd have no choice but to follow the others and, if they found Kukyo, he'd have to fight her. He'd left silently and Naruto and Sakura hadn't woken up, and he got the feeling they'd stay that way, so Kakashi wasn't overly worried he'd be interrupted in his search, but he didn't really know where he was looking, or what he was looking for.

So things didn't exactly look good for him.

But Kakashi still kept going, gathering the buildings in the centre of the estate might have more of a chance of holding an answer. He went through each, his memories coming back as he did so. What each building acted as he still didn't know, but it had been Kukyo who had allowed him to see inside them, leaving the doors open; getting him past the security and making sure no one was around so he could take a look inside. Seeing what was left of the experiments, Kakashi narrowed his eyes; even knowing Kukyo was the assassin, he had spent enough time around her to understand a little of what she was like.

When she spoke of the experiments, it was never in a good way, and not because she wasn't interested or she thought it was pathetic, not wanting anything to do with her father. It was because she didn't agree with it—because she didn't want to see those people get hurt or killed through what her father was doing to them. And Kakashi knew it hadn't been a lie; it had all been genuine emotion when she had told him she wanted to stop Daraku from doing all the experiments. Therefore it painted a different picture to the one than it seemed on the surface: the assassin for Daraku who merely took his orders and completed them without any guilt or remorse; who killed anyone she was asked to and who cut down anyone in her way.

Kakashi had seen the look on her face just before she had run…It wasn't the expression one would expect. The way she had acted that entire time hadn't been anything like she should have been acting, and then there was the last thing she had said to him to think about. He still had no idea what any of that had meant—and the way she had said it—it had been melancholy in itself. It wasn't just the words Kakashi had to consider; it was the tone of Kukyo's voice, as well. Everything fit together somehow, and it all made sense in some way, if Kakashi could just find a clue that would allow him to figure it all out.

His mood was hopefully determined as he reached the next building, not knowing if it would give him any answers and a part of him beginning to think there wouldn't be anything to find. But it didn't mean he stopped walking. He continued forward, that small bit of hope inside of him driving him onwards with the possibility that he could discover the truth, and so, circling round the building until he found the door, he went towards it, ready to go in.

Slamming a kick into the door allowed Kakashi entry, as the explosion had affected the building badly, though not as bad as some. Several walls were collapsed, furniture and rubble strewn across the floor, though as Kakashi stepped forward cautiously, looking upwards at the night sky where the roof had begun to collapse, he could see the building wasn't too unstable. Unless he started charging into walls and setting off explosive tags, he was safe, and so he turned his attention towards the building to see if there was anything that could answer his questions—or at least some clues to guide him in the right direction.

But it was as he did this that Kakashi noticed something. Unlike the other buildings he'd been looking in, this building wasn't set up like a laboratory. There weren't the machines, tools or instruments that were visible elsewhere, or even the supplies like in the warehouses. It wasn't even like the place where they had kept the people they were experimenting on; that had been like a prison, and the building where the ninja slept was on the outskirts.

This was more like a house. The usual furniture—chairs, tables, a bookcase…As Kakashi glanced around the doorway into the next room he saw it was a kitchen. In a place like this estate, it seemed completely out of place, and wondering what Daraku used it for, Kakashi instantly realised that it was for Daraku. He would need a place to stay, and most likely wanted better conditions than the ninja. But if that was the case…then it definitely had to have information on Kukyo. This place definitely had to have answers, and glancing around the room, his eyes alighted on the bookcase and the files.

Narrowing his eyes, Kakashi instantly went over, grabbing a hold of it from where it had fallen over against the wall and beginning to pull it up again. The only thing that stopped him was when he noticed it getting caught on something on the floor, and frowning at that as he finally pulled it up and out of the way, he went over to see there was a hole in the floor—revealing a darkness beneath. Immediately recognizing it as a trap door, Kakashi gripped the edges of it and pulled them up, widening his eyes in surprise at what he found:

A staircase leading downward into the darkness.